400,000 Bees Were Extracted From A Camper By A Man Named Critter McCool

The best local news stories are and will always be (1) “Wow, there’s an animal running for elected office,” and (2) “Hey, look at the size of this pumpkin!” Running a close third, however, is “Holy crap, that’s a lot of bees/snakes!” This story falls into that last category. It is about a camper in South Carolina that had 400,000 bees in it. That is too many bees. It is also, somehow, not the most notable part of the story.

A Summerville man says he recently extracted what he thinks may be the biggest yellow jacket hive in the country.

Eric “Critter” McCool, owner of McCool’s Wildlife Control & Bee Extractions, said Tuesday he got a call about a pop-up camper being full of yellow jackets. [ABCNews4]

Stop. Critter McCool. The bees — almost half a million of them — were extracted by a man named Critter McCool.

Critter McCool.

“I had to go inside and pull all the paper, all the hive and all the brood,” said McCool. “It was pretty insane and quite the adrenaline rush. The bee’s nest was underneath the bench, inside the cabinets, all over the stove it was everywhere.”

Now, maybe you, like me, after the two or three hours it takes to get your head around a wildlife control and bee extraction business run by a man named Critter McCool, will get to thinking. “Hey,” you’ll think. “Does Critter McCool have the qualifications to make claims like ‘the biggest yellow jacket hive in the country,’ or even make an estimate like ‘400,000 bees’ just by eyeballing it? Doesn’t that seem like the kind of thing that would require an expert in the field?”

Oh ho ho, my skeptical friend.

‘Critter’ McCool has been extracting bees for 19 years. McCool not only owns his own business, but also founded the International Bee Extraction Group.

I’m an exterminator and it’s not too uncommon to get a nest with about 100k wasps but 400K that’s crazy! To give you a VERY rough idea, that’s about a car full of wasps.
Also bee jobs in November? FUCK THAT!